NO GIRLS ALLOWED QUILT BEE – AUGUST

Hooray! it’s September and I’m now officially caught up with my bee blocks. August’s blocks were actually made after September’s but in the spirit of returning some structure to my increasingly hectic life, I’m at least going to blog about them in the correct order.

Taking the lead last month was Mr. Shauan Abels who, for some months now, has been a honorary Brit, staying at an RAF base on military service. We’re hoping to meet up before he returns to the US at the end of this month and discuss all things quilt, Tula Pink and what really goes on in the navy! As has become tradition for the members of the bee, here’s a few tidbits about Shaun which, owing to his tardiness in replying, some of the other guys made up.

1. Shaun likes big butts and he can not lie.

2. His drag queen name is Dixie Normous.

3. His favourite pants are quilted leather assless chaps.

4. The real reason he moved to the UK was so that he could freely perform “Baby Got Back” as Dixie Normous, while wearing his quilted leather assless chaps. You should see his tip jar!

5. His favourite pick up line is “Helllllo, sailor!” It works.

6. His first real job was slinging chicken wings as a Hooters girl. He still gardens in his orange shorts.

7. He considers Tula Pink a personal hero, second only to Nicki Minaj.

A little more interesting than the your usual bio, wouldn’t you agree? Don’t forget to check out Shaun’s work, including the progress on his Tula Pink City Sampler, on Instagram, where he posts as slabels. After a bit of a false start involving a copyright issue, Shaun scrapped his original block plans and made his month a free-for-all! Once again the choice was ours. We could make what we want, as long as it finished at 12.5″. I thought for quite a while about what to make before deciding that I wanted to incorporate two elements; one, Shaun’s love of Tula Pink and two, his association with the navy.

For my first block I went for improv curved piecing, using blues and greens to represent the sea. I fashioned some paper boats from a text print and scattered them upon the waves. I have a few ideas about future quilts that involve curved piecing so this was a good opportunity to practice. It went well, once I got into the swing of things, and wasn’t nearly as daunting as I expected.

For block number two I used triangles as my inspiration after a comment Shaun had previously posted on my September blocks (coming soon!). Again I couldn’t stay away from improv piecing, and really had no plan beforehand. I chose some great Tula prints from her Accacia and Foxfield collections and mixed them up with some scraps of solids and co-coordinating prints. I love it when I get let loose with my block making and these two were great fun. There’s something about a quilt that has so many different elements coming together from so many creative minds that really excites me. I can’t wait to see this one finished!

There’s only September’s block for me to tell you about before it my turn. How exciting! I’ve already let the guys now what I want so hopefully I’ll start to see the fruits of their creative labour on Instagram very soon. The bee hashtag is growing each day! Be sure to follow along on with #NGAQB.